Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Saints of the Cheap Seats Group Break

Dan at Saints of the Cheap Seats recently held a group break. For $22 you could purchase a slot for the team of your choosing. I paid my fee, snagged the Boston Red Sox of course, and waited anxiously for the break to appear on Dan's blog. There were some differing opinions about what he would bust, and in the end it was decided that he'd open 4 wax boxes of 2007 Ultimate baseball. I have to admit that at first I was a bit disappointed, I had hoped that the consensus would be a product with a higher total card count. With 2007 Ultimate there are only 4 packs per box, so Dan was opening a total of 16 packs with just 4 cards per pack, for a total of 64 cards. Nonetheless I waited patiently and finally Dan's videos appeared (which were done extremely well!). I made out better than most, nabbing 3 excellent cards. They just arrived in the mail yesterday, time to show them off. Here they are in the order which they appeared in the break...

#SM-JB - Josh Beckett - Ultimate Star Materials - The first Red Sox card that was pulled was this Josh Beckett jersey card. Nothing too flashy but I was psyched as this is the first Beckett relic card in my collection. Hopefully he can turn it around this year and return to 2007 form. The Sox are going to need that if they expect to keep pace with the Yankees this year.

#PM-JP - Jonathan Papelbon - America's Pastime (#'d 3/50) - Wow! I was beyond excited to see Dan reveal this card. I've got a couple of Papelbon jersey cards, but nothing even close to this. I love the design on the card and serial numbered to 50 is OK in my book. The best part about it has to be that three colored jersey piece though. It instantly became the best jersey card in my collection, but that didn't last long. I would've been satisfied with these two cards alone, but in the very last pack this appeared...

#UTM-FJ - Fergie Jenkins - Ultimate Team Materials (#'d 10/25) - I don't even know what to say about this one. What a great card! This is an actual patch as opposed to a jersey swatch, and it's the only patch in my collection so far. Not only that, but a Red Sox patch of a Cy Young winner and Hall of Famer to boot!

Despite my initial worries I couldn't have been happier with how this break went. I made out pretty well, others made out better, some worse. All in all I thought the break was a huge success. I was pretty naive as this was my first break, but I think you really need to do an elite product like this. After all, isn't the point of a group break to get some cards you could never normally afford on your own? Not only that, but it worked out great that the number of total cards was limited, it kept the break from going on for too long. Not only that, but a product like this where almost every card is a "hit", had me at the edge of my seat for the entire break.
Dan, thank you so much for organizing this! The break was awesome, the videos were great, and I couldn't be happier with my cards. If you ever decide to try one of these again I am definitely in!